After the news that the new MacBook Airs do not ship with Flash pre-installed (which is news considering Flash has been part of Mac OS X for a very long time), we now have news that Apple is also taking what appears to be the first steps towards removing Apple's own Java runtime from Mac OS X.

That doesn't really make sense. There are many multi-gig (sometimes in the hundreds) software out there that would be a pain to download, not to mention that many 3rd party applications have their own licensing schemes which Apple doesn't allow in the app store. Some of these 3rd parties may also not want the user to have the ability to install their applications on as many macs as they own. Adobe comes to mind, but more importantly (at least to me) you have production applications like Ableton, Cubase, even Logic. What do you do if you own a price of hardware that has its own software (like ProTools). Its scary, yes, because I know that is where Apple wants to go, but logistically I don't see it happening. The pro market would defect in a heart beat, but I guess Apple doesn't really care about that market as of late anyway.

I would definitely move elsewhere if Apple were to lock down the Mac, but to where? There is nothing like the Mac for music production, things run smoothly and there is almost never any issues with hardware or software unless a 3rd party isn't paying attention. I can't move back to Linux, because frankly the audio offering and audiostack in Linux sucks balls. Windows is an option but there are issues with hardware and the audiostack while nice isn't as simple to use nor is there anything like CoreMidi for Windows. In WIn7 its better and works pretty well, but it initially had issues when it came to pro audio work because MS didn't bother to test the stupid thing for that use case.

Almost every audio interface has their own set of drivers that may or may not work on your hardware/chipset/version of windows. You don't have to deal with that on a Mac, They generally stress manufacturers to use standard protocols and make it so simple for developers that for the most part most hardware is plug an play, no drivers required. Most of the time manufacturers are only installing helper applications to control the hardware. Nothing really compares to it for Music production, nor video as a I understand it.